I get what you're saying. As you can probably guess, the prohibitions against this sort of thing working are based on story considerations, but with that in mind, it's not hard to find reasons within the already established systems as to why this might be the case.JQBogus wrote:Have I really explained it that poorly?
Farsensing is keyed to the ability of "signature detection," or the detection of a living mind. Since we know that this ability is effective at detecting Umiak and other non-telepathic beings, this means the signature is not based on any telepathic quality of the target mind. I don't see that there's any reason to expect that the addition of a telepathic amplifier on the detection target will significantly change this signature. Farseers can tell a Loroi from an Umiak, but it's not because they're picking up the telepathic sendings from the Loroi; it's because the Loroi mental signature "tastes" different from the Umiak one.
Farseers can, in some cases, detect amplified telepathic sendings at distance, but this is a separate ability from signature detection.
I doubt that you can fit 50,000 Umiak on a single transport, but it's true that there's no difference to a Farseer between a civilian transport and a warship. However, I don't see the value in using such vessels as decoys.JQBogus wrote:Couldn't the Umiak simply pack several old freighters to the gills with sentients, and use them as decoys in a 'big push' into Loroi space? If Farseers can't distinguish individuals or groups in somewhat close proximity to each other at interstellar distances, then 50,000 'volunteers' packed into a single freighter look the same as a ~100 ship Umiak fleet. Send out 50 freighters and 3 fleets, and the fleets will probably get through without suffering the normal attrition attacks, as the Loroi haven't got enough intercept groups to intercept all the contacts. They'd have to intercept with picket ships, then have the pickets escape and relay their contact's identity in person. By which time, the Umiak fleet may have traversed quite a lot of the steppes.
For starters, I think your assumption that the Loroi can't intercept 50 decoys is an incorrect one; there are only a finite number of routes across the Steppes, and the Umiak have a lot of ships... warships. The Umiak have certainly at times in the past flooded every possible route with fleets of real warships, and the Loroi have had to find ways to deal with this. The Loroi have a lot of interdiction assets -- the one incursion at Naam drew three separate Loroi strike groups into the system. Each strike group typically has 30-40 vessels; they can split up if they need to. They have to be able to find the enemy forces and prioritize which ones are really a threat. This will be a drill the Loroi have run many times. Finding unarmed transports filled with Umiak civilians would probably be considered a rare treat. In such a case there's no relay necessary; the destruction of the transport will remove it from the Farseers' view.
Might such decoys spread Loroi raiders thin? Perhaps, in which case there would probably be fewer interdiction strikes on the "real" fleet before it hits Loroi lines. Might the decoys delay detection of the real fleet and interfere with the ability of the Loroi heavy assets to assemble at the targeted system in Loroi territory? Unlikely; all the contacts will be investigated and the real fleet will be identified in pretty much the same time frame as if it had crossed alone. Keep in mind that the Loroi heavy battle groups are not drawn into the Steppes, but instead converge within Loroi territory to meet the Umiak force when it has finished its Steppes transit.
If the Umiak could somehow hide the real fleet from detection, then that would be a serious problem for the Loroi, and the use of decoys could make it even worse. But using decoys without such ability would at best allow an assault fleet to suffer fewer losses from interdiction strikes during the Steppes crossing, and that doesn't sound like an advantage worth sacrificing the lives of 2.5 million Umiak civilians for.